In an open-garden model, telecommunications (telecom) operators seek to provide third party application developers access to core telecom content and capabilities (for example, call, messaging, and/or presence). Such a model may provide new revenue opportunities for telecommunications companies (telcos), and may tap the potential of Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks as a facilitator for Web 2.0-oriented applications (for example, mashups). Existing service creation paradigms are based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), for example, Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) for the Parlay-X set of web services APIs for the telephone network, whereby telecom operators expose services using application program interfaces (APIs) or protocol interfaces. Telecom services can be asynchronous (e.g. messaging), and continuous (e.g. call) in nature. As will be appreciated by the skilled artisan, the Parlay-X Web services are defined jointly by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the Parlay Group, and the Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP).
One prior art approach is set forth in US Patent Publication 2007-0088836, which discloses an application service invocation based on filter criteria. An Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) device includes a memory configured to store a subscriber profile, where the subscriber profile includes at least one criterion relating to an event that occurs after a session request has been forwarded to a terminating party. The IMS device further includes a processor configured to invoke at least one application service for a session based on the at least one criterion in the subscriber profile.
Another prior art approach is set forth in US Patent Publication 2007-0209061, which discloses apparatuses and a method for controlling access to an IP multimedia system from an application server. A security node controls access to an internet protocol multi-media system from an application server outside the system. The multi-media system includes a session protocol server (Serving Call Session Control Function or S-CSCF) and a subscriber database (Home Subscriber Server or HSS). The security node comprises a database access control node operable to control access to the subscriber database (HSS) from the application server, a session message control node operable to control communication of the messages to the session protocol server from the application server, and a control information database for storing control data. The control data specifies conditions for accessing the subscriber database (HSS) and for communicating with the session protocol server (S-CSCF). The database access control node is operable to control access to the subscriber database in accordance with the control data, and the session message control node is operable to control communication of messages to the session protocol server in accordance with the control data. Embodiments set forth in US Patent Publication 2007-0209061 can provide a facility for an application server operating externally to an internet protocol multi-media system network to have controlled access to resources within the network. For example, the access may be controlled in accordance with a policy agreed between an operator of the network and an operator of the application server.